The Franciscan Invention of the New World

This book examines the story of the 'discovery of America' through the prism of the history of the Franciscans, a socio-religious movement with a unique doctrine of voluntary poverty. The Franciscans rapidly developed global dimensions, but their often paradoxical relationships with poverty and power offer an alternate account of global history. Through this lens, Julia McClure offers a deeper history of colonialism, not only by extending its chronology, but also by exploring the powerful role of ambivalence in the emergence of colonial regimes. Other topics discussed include the legal history of property, the complexity and politics of global knowledge networks, the early (and neglected) history of the Near Atlantic, and the transatlantic inquisition, mysticism, apocalypticism, and religious imaginations of place.

Julia McClure is a global historian interested in the history of poverty, charity and colonialism. She has specialised in the history of the Franciscans and the Spanish Atlantic. She gained her PhD at the University of Sheffield, had research fellowships at Harvard's Weatherhead Initiative on Global History and the European University Institute in Florence, and is now at the Centre for Global History at the University of Warwick.

Prologue, The story.- Introduction.- Chapter One: The Landscapes of Franciscan Poverty.- Chapter Two: Feeding the Imaginative Landscape of the Franciscan Order.- Chapter Three: The Franciscan Atlantic.- Chapter Four: Franciscan landscapes of identity and violence.- Chapter Five: The New World at the End of the World.- Conclusion.- Bibliography.